One of the saddest bits of news I’ve seen in a while was an announcement last week from the office of Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

To comply with an order from the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget to cut spending by $730,000, Kemp will lay off most employees of the state archives and close the facility to the general public on Nov. 1.

We never know when or where emergencies or disasters are going to happen – which is why it is so important to take action now to make sure your family is prepared for the worst.

How do you prepare?

• Assemble an emergency supply kit with everything you need to survive on your own after an emergency for at least 72 hours. This means having food, water and other supplies sufficient for your family and pets.

Depending on the scope of the disaster, local officials and relief workers will be on the scene, but they cannot reach everyone immediately.

After many years of observing the activities of Georgia’s politicians, I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that the state’s voters surely do like scoundrels. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t keep on electing so many of them to public office.

This tradition was best exemplified by Eugene Talmadge, the wild man from Sugar Creek who once told a campaign audience, “Sure I stole, but I stole for you!” Talmadge won every time but once when he ran for governor in the 1930s and 1940s.

Like a summer houseguest who outstays his welcome, the current economic climate just won’t leave.

That was the recent message when the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had ticked up to 8.3 percent. Just days earlier, the Commerce Department reported that America’s gross domestic product is growing at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent, as the debt crisis in Europe and looming end-of-year tax hikes continue to slow the recovery.

Opinions vary as to how much, depending on who you ask, but most major religious surveys agree on the over-arching (and somewhat alarming) data that shows church attendance is in rapid decline. This trend is no respecter of denominations, as the mainline Christian church across the board continues to decrease in numbers.

I find this data alarming indeed, but not for reasons one might expect from a pastor.

The members of the Senate Ethics Committee have finally settled ethics complaints filed against one of their fellow lawmakers, state Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville.

Balfour had a habit of filing reports claiming reimbursement from taxpayers’ money for expenses he allegedly incurred as a legislator. The only problem was, on some of those days when he said he should have been reimbursed for expenses, Balfour was out of town being wined and dined by lobbyists.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

– Seneca, circa 4 B.C.

Admittedly, I grew up in the Stone Age. At least that’s what it sounds like to my grandchildren when I describe my life two generations ago. A succession of rented, poorly built homes with few amenities, or whatever my father could afford, were a far cry from what these young ones deem normal today.